At the present time, there are a wide variety of sound effect devices designed within dolls, figurines, toys and the like. These sound effects are usually of poor quality and add to the cost of the toy. Furthermore, many toys are not equipped with sound effects. If a child possesses a wide variety of toys (toy guns, dolls, space ships, cars, dinosaurs, figurines, etc . . . ) not equipped with sound effects, the child must improvise by creating his/her own sound effects. Currently, there are no sound effect devices that provide sounds for dolls, figurines, toys and the like that are not otherwise equipped with sound effect devices. In addition, those dolls, figurines, toys and the like that are equipped with sound effect devices are limited to the sound effects provided by the manufacturer.
Heretofore, inventors have modified a variety of sound devices. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,253,068; 4,337,460; 5,177,467; 4,314,236; and 5,130,693. All of these inventions provide different sound effects for various purposes. However, these devices are not designed to provide sound effects for dolls, figurines, toys and the like and they suffer many other disadvantages that inhibit their full commercial acceptance.
For example, there are many toys for sale in today's market, however, none of the prior art sound effect devices provide the user with the ability to change or add extra sounds to a toy's given list of sound effects. In other words, the toy is limited to the sound effects contained inside the toy as provided by the manufacturer. Second, when a child plays with a toy that contains sound effects, it is often difficult and disruptive for the child to manually push buttons on the object and play at the same time. Prior art designs simply do not allow the user to control the sound effects while playing with the toy in a more natural, realistic manner. In addition, such toys do not help develop the child's hand-eye coordination. Another disadvantage of prior art designs is the relatively poor sound quality. A majority of the sound effects associated with prior art designs are electronically simulated sounds; they are not prerecorded "real sounds." Thus, the sounds produced provide little realism.